


Just Want Your Extra Time

by Ljparis



Series: Starflowers & Scoundrels [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alderaan, Backstory, F/M, First Kiss, Flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-06 07:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12812625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ljparis/pseuds/Ljparis
Summary: Before their relationship even begins, Bail and Breha both want something from the other: a kiss.





	Just Want Your Extra Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primeideal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/gifts).



> Primeideal, your ask for a look into their relationship as they fell in love in happier times is what I hope I've been able to do here. I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Thank you to Sabrina for the quick beta!

Bail Antilles loved first kisses. 

He loved the anticipation, waiting for the right moment, that first touch of lips to lips, the taste, the exploration, even the moment when the kiss ended and both parties could sigh, content, before leaning back in for a second kiss.

That said, he hated his current first kiss situation. Every time he thought about orchestrating his first kiss with Princess Breha, his stomach turned over, filled with anxiety. This wasn't just any first kiss. This was a first kiss with _Breha_. There was a feeling he had, one that touched every pore of his being, that told him this wasn't going to be the same as any other first kiss he ever had. 

In short, how, exactly, did one go about kissing a princess?

For one, he didn't know if there ever would be a right moment. She was his princess, a member of the royal house Organa, the heir apparent to the world he called home. That made the entire act of their first kiss vastly different from every other first kiss in Bail's life. 

Especially because he couldn't be sure she even wanted him to kiss her, and the last thing he wanted to do was offend her or upset her or make any sort of assumption that he shouldn't have made.

He spent the most of the evening unable to take his eyes off of her. Thankfully, the jazz lounge he had run into her at was crowded, and she was constantly surrounded by a gaggle of her friends, so he didn't think he was being too obvious. 

Seeing her there that evening, dressed in a shade of blue that reminded him of the morning sunrise over Aldera, her hair twisted against the back of her neck with a long braid swinging down her back, felt a little like fate. Like maybe tonight was the night. Perhaps he could offer to take her home when, during the speeder ride to the palace, he might ask her to dinner. Or to the opera. Or on a casual walk along the river to where they first met.

"Stop looking at the princess as though you want to devour her."

Bail startled, jerking his gaze away from Breha and to his good friend Rainer, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere at his side. "I am not," he muttered, rubbing his jaw.

"You are being significantly less than subtle," Rainer continued. "And I know for a fact that everyone here has noticed. What are you _thinking_?"

What he was thinking wasn't something he was going to be sharing, especially not when those thoughts involved the curve of the princess's lips, the soft lines of her jaw, the way she glanced over at him as nonchalantly as possible, her cheeks pink. "Nothing," he said quickly. "We ran into each other the other day and I'm working up the courage to go talk to her again."

Rainer laughed. "Since when are you ever lacking in courage when it comes to this sort of thing?" 

"Since it involves Alderaan's princess," Bail pointed out. He scratched the back of his neck and shook his head. "I need a drink. Shall we?" Without waiting for a response - and he knew Rainer was more than likely biting his tongue to keep from making any number of comments about Bail's sudden interest in Princess Breha - Bail turned away from the crowd and headed for the refreshments, where he hoped to find something with a bit of a bite. Rainer followed after him, laughing.

\--

"Senator Antilles hasn't taken his eyes off of you all night," Tarri said, touching Breha's elbow to keep her from turning to look over at the senator. 

Breha blushed, curling her fingers against her thigh to keep from using her palm to cool her cheeks. "I know," she said in a hush. "I don't know what to do."

Tarri nodded, sharing a look with Lania, at Breha's other side. "I know. If it were any other man in this room -"

"- we'd suggest you go for it. But not with _him_ ," Lania finished. She didn't even pretend she wasn't looking past Breha at Bail Antilles. She breathed out. "Even if he _is_ incredibly good-looking." If this were another time and place, Lania might have begun fanning herself.

"He's a _scoundrel_ ," Tarri said in a hushed tone, as though the very word was scandalous on its own. "The rumors that come out of Coruscant -"

Breha held up a hand to stop her. "I'm not interested in Coruscanti gossip," she said firmly, even though yes, she had heard all of the rumors about Bail Antilles. It was hard not to, seeing as he was the youngest senator from Alderaan, very good-looking, and maybe also because she sought out more information about him almost immediately after meeting him for the first time face to face. Or, rather, face to chest, seeing as how he had been exiting a body of water and wasn't wearing many clothes when they met. "And I'm even less interested in Senator Antilles."

 _Liar,_ said a little voice in the back of Breha's mind. _Didn't your mother teach you never to tell a lie?_ She ignored herself and smoothed out the material of her jumpsuit. 

"Good," Tarri said, "because he's completely unsuitable. Your mother would have an attack if you brought him up in the same breadth as a courtship. Can you even imagine?"

Though she didn't admit it, the truth was that yes she could imagine it. 

Yes, her mother might have an over-dramatic moment or two if Breha mentioned his name, based solely on the rumors alone. But were those rumors even true? If he was as loose with his time and so generous with his company as the gossip suggested, why wasn't he flirting with her already? Or with any number of the other beings in the lounge? And if he didn't care what people said about him, well, then he absolutely should be trying to get her attention. The very fact that he wasn't made Breha second-guess all of gossip that had traveled from Coruscant to Alderaan. 

And yes, her mother might point out that there were any number of other young Alderaanian men to whom Breha might forge an affection or begin a courtship. In that case, why couldn't it be Bail Antilles, should it come to that? Not that she should leap forward all the way to courtship in the first place, after one brief (shirtless and wet - on his part) encounter and one evening of him looking at her with eyes nearly smoldering. They probably ought to have a proper conversation first. 

And a kiss, Breha decided. Yes, she certainly needed to kiss him before she made any other decision about the man at all.

"I know that look," Tarri said quietly, shaking her head and bringing Breha's attention back to her two friends. 

Lania nodded. "You're going to go talk to him, aren't you?" Her tone betrayed her excitement. Where Tarri was reticent about the idea, Lania was more likely to urge Breha on. In this situation, the princess was thankful for both of her friends. 

Breha stood up a little straighter and tugged her long braid over her shoulder, which showed the entirety of her bare back where the jumpsuit dipped dangerously low. "I am," she said confidently. "There's no harm to be done by the princess of Alderaan having a pleasant conversation with Alderaan's junior senator, I'm sure." 

Her friends shared a look, Tarri's concerned and Lania's excited. "If you're sure -" Tarri began at the same time Lania said, "Go for it!" Which is exactly what Breha did.

\--

Princess Breha could never make her way through a crowded lounge without being stopped several times, so almost a half hour had passed before she found herself close enough to Senator Antilles for the reality of the moment to settle in.

She wanted to wait until he was finished with his conversation, but there didn't seem to be even a break for her to interject herself into. Her stomach fluttered, and she touched her chest lightly, glancing down to make sure that the pulse of her pulmonodes was steady rather than betray any nerves she was feeling. The glow was normal, and Breha let out a slow breath and looked up, realizing that Bail and his companion had paused their conversation and had both turned to her.

"Your highness," the other man said, a quirk to the corner of his mouth that Breha didn't want to interpret. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Rainer Bens. I work in the ministry of agriculture."

Her smile grew. "Yes, I recognize your name. It's great to meet you." Breha couldn't help but let her attention and focus flit from Rainer to Bail, even though she knew it might be considered rude to him if he picked up on it. 

When Rainer nudged Bail with his elbow, cleared his throat, and made an excuse about seeing someone he needed to talk with before bowing slightly at Breha and walking away, she knew he had definitely picked up on it. She also tended to think he didn't find it very rude at all.

"Senator Antilles," she said.

"Princess Breha," he murmured back, his dark eyes meeting hers. 

"I was surprised to see you here," she continued. "I assumed you spent more time on Coruscant than here these days." It was his job to be there with the Senate after all, and it was currently in session. 

"Tomorrow is my mother's birthday," he told her.

Her chest tightened. Now that was a piece of gossip about Bail Antilles that no one would believe. A man devoted to his mother couldn't be too much of a scoundrel. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning even more widely. "I'm sure she appreciates that you took the time out of your schedule to be here for her birthday."

"I never miss it," he said sincerely.

Breha nodded. "So, uh -" She realized belatedly that in all her insistence that she go and talk to him, she hadn't actually planned what to say. She could stand up in front of a crowd of thousands and give a speech, and she could hold her own with politicians, other royals, and such, and yet she wasn't sure what to say to _this_ particular politician. It wasn't as though she could just get straight to the kissing either, not here in a public place, among quite a few people.

"Would you like to dance?" he asked, saving her from trying to think of what else to say. Bail extended a hand to her and she took it, the touch of his skin to hers warm. She nodded, pressing her lips together in a demure smile when what she really wanted was to throw herself at him. A jazzy dance would have to do for now.

"Have you been here before?" Bail asked as they stepped out onto the dance floor and he slid his arm around her waist. His fingers brushed against the bare skin of her back and Breha had to remind herself to breathe. He flattened his palm against her back, the touch practically searing her, and she moved her hand to his upper arm, up to his shoulder as she looked up at him.

Breha nodded, stepping in closer to him as he led her in simple movements in time with the beat of the percussionist. "I have yes," she said. "It's one of my favorite places. Most of the time, here, people don't bat an eye at seeing me, so I don't have to be 'on' all the time."

He frowned, just for a split second. "Is that something you normally have to worry about?"

She relaxed her hand against the back of his shoulder. "Sometimes," she admitted. "Sometimes I never know who's watching or what's expected of me. This place is different. For instance, if I want to dance a little too closely with a roguish politician, I feel like I can."

His eyebrows lifted. "Roguish. I like that."

"How do you know I'm talking about you?" she teased.

He hesitated for a moment and then curled his fingers against her back, bringing them both closer to one another. Almost close enough that she could feel his hips move against hers, but not quite. "I hope you are," he said.

"I am," she replied.

"Good." 

He swayed with her quietly as the song drew to a close, and Breha refused to look away from him even though she suspected that half the people in the lounge were watching them. Or maybe she expected that they were. Her face flushed as he stepped back and inclined his head at her, bowing as was respectful of her position. "Thank you for the dance, princess," he said.

"Thank you for asking me." Not many beings would, she wanted to say. In fact, she couldn't think of the last time she was at the lounge with her friends and someone asked her to dance. Sometimes Tarri and Lania would go off to dance, looking guilty, but Breha didn't fault them nor did it upset her. She knew she wasn't asked for the sole reason that she was Princess of Alderaan and anyone seen dancing with her like Bail Antilles had just danced with her would probably end up in the news holos. Even in a place like this where she wasn't usually bothered.

"Would it be all right with you if I escorted you home when you're ready to leave?" Bail asked.

Her breath caught somewhere between her artificial lungs and her mouth, stuck there like a lump in her throat. Was he interested, she thought, or were the rumors true? She decided she didn't care which it was if it meant she would be alone with him long enough to kiss him. 

"I'd like that very much, Senator," she said. She looked at him for a moment longer before heading back, a bounce in her step, to her friends to let them know that they were on their own for their return trips home that night.

\--

The air was cool, causing Breha to shiver as she walked alongside Bail on their way to his speeder. It was a clear night, dark and moonless as always on Alderaan, but the stars were visible, even here in Aldera with the flickering nighttime lights of the city. Her cloak kept her warm enough as they walked the short distance, and Bail offered her his hand as she stepped up into the speeder and made herself comfortable.

Once he was in the speeder as well, but before he could get them moving, she touched his arm gently. "Senator," she said urgently, "Bail." 

He turned to her, glancing down at her hand, which she left on his arm, her fingers curling against the thick fabric of his cloak. "Yes, princess?" 

Before she could change her mind, she used her grip on his arm to pull herself over to him, tipped her face up to his, and kissed him. 

It surprised her to realize that Bail didn't immediately return the kiss. She expected for him to take control, pull her in against him, maybe cup her cheek and rub the side of her jaw. Mostly, she expected him to touch her, in some way, and when he didn't, Breha felt herself start to panic. She pulled back, muttering something that might have been an apology under her breath, and settled back into her seat. She pressed her palm over the pulsing glow at her chest as though that might keep him from noticing that her heart rate increased, but in the dark night, her palms couldn't contain the light from her pulmonodes.

"What are you apologizing for?" Bail asked.

"I shouldn't have kissed you," she said. "It was very forward of me." Not knowing what else to do, Breha folded her hands over her lap and focused on looking straight ahead. How had she completely misjudged their situation? Had he been staring at her all night because she'd spilled something down her jumpsuit?

"Princess," he said, brushing her cheek with the back of his hand until she turned to look at him. "You surprised me, that's all. I was hoping to kiss you tonight, but I figured it wouldn't be until we got to the palace, not the second we got into the speeder."

She lowered her gaze and bite down on her lower lip. "I didn't think I could wait until the end of the ride," she whispered, though with the quiet night air, her admission sounded like a shout.

"I was thinking that it might be harder than anything I've ever done," Bail murmured, closing the space between them to kiss her again, this time doing precisely what she had hoped he would in the first place. His lips moved over hers as his palm stroked her jaw. When she sighed into the kiss, he took advantage and tasted her, his tongue parting her lips, deepening the kiss. His goatee tickled her chin. She turned more fully toward him and pressed her fingers into the hair at the back of his neck.

Yes, she thought. This was exactly what she wanted. His mouth against hers. His touch against her skin. The air around them cool but their kiss warming them both. This was a first kiss she wouldn't be able to get out of her head.

Bail pulled back first. "I'd like to keep kissing you, princess," he said, "but do you mind if we get back to it once we're out of the city?"

It hadn't occurred to her but he was right. They chanced someone coming upon them, maybe even someone taking a holo image, the longer they remained in the city. She laughed lightly and let her hand slip down his back. "Yes, of course. You're right. We'll have more privacy somewhere en route to the palace." She shifted away from him, returning her hands to her lap to steady herself, her breathing.

Bail nodded and started up the speeder. He reached out to her, catching her hand in his and bringing it up to his mouth. He kissed the inside of her wrist and glanced over to smile at her. "Princess," he began.

"Breha," she corrected him in a quick breath. "Please. Call me Breha."

His smile grew. "Breha," he said, her name rolling off her tongue like a purr. This time, when she shivered, she knew it had nothing to do with the cool night air they sped through on their way to the palace.

**Author's Note:**

> You might notice the use of surnames here. I rather like the idea of Alderaan being a matriarchal society wherein the surname is passed through the women, so I've taken that stance here.


End file.
